1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to tortilla preparation and, more particularly, is concerned with an improved conveyor for a tortilla making machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, tortilla making machines have used conveyors having metal belts with articulated boards to cook tortillas. The articulation of the boards is accomplished by joining the boards together with two rings at their opposite ends, such as illustrated in FIG. 2A. To move these belts, the conveyor has used rollers to generate frictional traction. A conveyor using frictional traction requires the belts to operate under a high degree of tension so that friction between the belts and the rollers of the conveyor will generate the belt's motion.
In addition to operating under tension, the prior art belt with boards articulated by rings operates while subjected to a temperature of between 300 and 350 degrees C (570 to 660 degrees F) which is the average temperature in tortilla making machines. In such environment, the prior art belt suffers wearing out in the clefts that serve to link the rings. The effect of cleft wear is that, instead of a normal gap or separation of 0.39 mm (0.015 inch) between adjacent boards, separation increases to as much as 3.17 mm (0.125 inch) or more. The result is that cooking of tortillas is hindered, even to the point of causing imperfections therein and, therefore, lowering of its quality.
Furthermore, the boards of the prior art belt are curved in cross section. This results in a disadvantage in the way the tortillas cook. Certain strip-like portions of the tortillas have more contact with the surface or upper part of the boards than other portions of the tortillas. The separation left between the boards causes the tortilla to make only incomplete contact with the belt. The result is that the part of the tortilla that lies across the gap or separation between the adjacent boards and makes faulty contact turns out to have imperfectly cooked strips.
Consequently, a need exists for improvements to be made in the construction of the conveyor belts which will effectively overcome the above described problems without introducing a set of new ones.